Wimbledon Hires a Hawk to Scare Away the Pigeons

The tennis tournament has a uniquely old fashioned way of trying to stop pigeons interrupting play, in the form of a freelance predator hired specifically to scare away birds. And we're not talking about Boris Becker.

Rufus is the hawk's name, and he can be found circling the courts between 5.00am and 9.00am every day. As well as helping reduce the number of comedy pigeon-on-court moments during the tournament, Rufus is also driving significant social media engagement for the Wimbledon brand, with the bird and his handlers enjoying a Twitter following of nearly 5,000 people. [Nerdist via io9]